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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Intellectual Property: Why we should care.

I remember explaining to a very confused classmate that piracy was bad and it was stealing. I remember getting very frustrated because he could not seem to grasp what I was saying, It seemed odd to me that he had no idea that he was stealing intellectual property. “How could he have not known?”, I was asking myself the whole time.

Turns out, most everyone in this country either do not know, do not care, or do not bother to think about it. Having a parent whose work dabbled in IP, I was not part of that majority. Having lived with random lectures on the topic and a strict no pirated rule in our house, I grew to understand and care about this issue.

Why does it matter?

We all create. Through instinct, basic necessity, or leisure, one way or another there is birth. As humans and gifted with intellect, I believe this is only natural to us. There is not one among us who have not, whether it be accidental or intentional, ever created. It is a function that we all share.

Creation is a process that takes work, we all know this. Whether it be a 500 word essay due tomorrow or the process that led to the next great painted masterpiece, there is a struggle to put into concrete terms that one idea. It is a seed, an infant, planted in our brain and nurtured to be brought out to the world in its fullest potential. It is our child, an original result of our own ideas and intellect. It is the result of toil and sweat and love.

How, then, could we have allowed people to take so selfishly that which we have birthed ourselves, struggling along the way? Who gave them the right?

We did. Our culture of piracy says that it is okay to steal, to take that which we all have so laboriously worked for. How could we have come to the point where it is okay to take from one without so much as an acknowledgement and then gain from it?

Piracy is not all about profit and thievery. Most importantly, it is about about respect. Mutual respect for each person with a mind and the gift to make and create. Respect for the product echoes a respect for the maker. Piracy does not only take without regard but it also insults our very make. How do we allow ourselves to be victims of such an atrocious practice that preys on those who are willing to construct the world and forge realities from the mind’s eye? They are the ones who built this world we all know and live in today

I speak as a student, a daughter, and as a person with a mind who creates. Protect our intellect. Protect our ideas.